The invention relates to a food product cartridge comprising a delivery and dosage member, the cartridge having a base part wherein an endless screw and a delivery opening are housed.
Such cartridge is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,609 which describes a cartridge-shaped housing having a dispenser with an endless screw in its bottom part. A measuring cup, attached outside the housing, closes the output of the housing in which the extremity of the endless screw is located.
A dispensing tray is pivotally mounted on the measuring cup. The endless screw can be manually turned to convey a quantity of food product into the measuring cup.
A drawback of the known cartridge is that the endless screw operates only as a conveyor. The obturation of the cartridge is realized by the dispensing tray. This obturation is however not tight enough to prevent moisture from entering the cartridge and deteriorating the food product. Furthermore, loss of food product could occur.
Moreover, for the user, it is necessary to execute two operations to obtain the delivery of the food product. First, he has to turn a handle in order to convey the food product with the endless screw to the measuring cup and then to push a hand lever in order to turn the dispensing tray around and thus have the food product delivered.
An object of the present invention is to avoid these shortcomings. This is achieved according to the present invention by a food product cartridge comprising a delivery and dosage member, the cartridge having base part wherein an endless screw and a delivery opening are housed, the endless screw being provided to operate a shutter for opening and closing the delivery opening.
The endless screw thus operates not only as a conveyor of the food product but takes also care that the delivery opening is closed after use. A single movement of the endless screw enables the opening and the closure of the delivery opening and the dosage of the food product delivered. Since the closure of the delivery opening is operated by the endless screw, a deterioration of the food product, stored inside the food product cartridge, is avoided.
In a preferred embodiment, a food product cartridge has a handle connected to the endless screw, a cycle of the handle comprising the opening of the delivery opening followed by the closing of the delivery opening. Thus, the end of the cycle corresponds with the closure of the delivery opening. In this way, the delivery opening remains closed between two operations of food product delivering, preventing in such a manner the loss of food product. Also, one cycle of the handle corresponds to a dosage of food product, enabling the user to obtain the dosage of food product he wants by the simple operation of turning the handle.
Preferably, the handle is mounted on the axis of the endless screw and is located on a front end of the base part of the cartridge. The position of the handle thus provides a user friendly operation since its access is easy and its manipulation is simple.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the handle is associated to a locking member provided to retain the handle and the shutter in the closed position of the delivery opening. The locking member determines in such a manner a cycle of the handle corresponding to one dosage of food product. When the delivery operation is finished, the handle is retained by the locking member in a position corresponding to the closed position of the shutter causing the shutter to remain tightly closed when no delivery of food is desired.
Preferably, in the cartridge according to the invention, a thread of the endless screw located at an extremity thereof forms the shutter of the delivery opening. The shutter is thus integrated into the endless screw which enables an easy and reliable construction.
Preferentially, in the food product cartridge of the present invention, the endless screw comprises at least two threads, the thread located at the extremity of the endless screw is substantially a circle segment-shaped and at least half of the thread has a surface extending perpendicular to the axis of the endless screw. This particular shape enables to define a larger space between the thread and the opening delivery, thus enabling to deliver a bigger dosage of food product and moreover, facilitating the flow of food product through the delivery opening by avoiding the possibility for small quantities of food product to remain blocked near the shutter. Furthermore, the threads of the endless-screw are preferentially disposed in the shape of a V with respect to the axis of the endless screw. This particular shape end disposition of the threads facilitate the removal of the endless screw from moulds after its fabrication.
The food product cartridge of the invention comprises an upper part and a base part connected to each other, the base part comprising a delivery and dosage member, an endless screw and a delivery opening, the endless screw being provided to operate a shutter for opening and closing the delivery opening. The fact that the delivery and dosage member are located in the base part of the cartridge facilitates the delivery of the food product by the gravitation movement of the food product.
The invention also relates to a food product cartridge, comprising a delivery and dosage member, preferentially provided to be used in a beverage dispenser. It can also be used in a food dispenser.
Preferentially, the beverage or food dispenser comprises a cartridge with a code indicating a type of food product stored in the cartridge and a reader provided to read the code, the reader being further provided to convert the read code into an operating signal indicating a number of rotations to be imposed on the endless screw, the reader being connected to a motor which is further connected to the endless screw, the motor having an input for receiving the operating signal.
With this embodiment of the invention, it is not necessary to move the handle manually in order to obtain the required dosage. The proper dosage will be delivered after the choice of the food product wanted by the user. The information about the appropriate dosage to be delivered is given by the code, one particular code, corresponding to one particular product food contained in a particular cartridge.
In this way, the dosage is delivered, with no other intervention of the user than choosing the beverage he waned by pushing one button.